Hidden Kickerholes

[highrise]

As some of you may know, I'm a bit of a stickler for detail. One of the things that bugs me about hidden kickers is that once the ball is trapped, it gets chopped in half as it apparently 'lands' in the hole. But in many cases, this just looks odd, and what you really need is the kind of effect you get with a kicker hole, where you can still see the whole ball. But of course, you don't want a big visible hole in your table.

The answer I found was to create a hidden hole. By creating a small droppable wall, a little bigger than a kicker hole, with a height of 0.3 units, no visible sides, and a top matched to the background image, I can hide a kicker hole behind it, and the ball will still land in it. Once the ball hits the kicker, the wall drops, and you get the ball resting, fully visible.

I've attached a diagram. The first uses the regular flavour hidden kicker, the second uses a kickerhole with a cover on it. As you can see, in the second one, the ball is resting on the nails in a way that looks much more natural.

If you have lots of kickers, all you have to do is put them in a collection, with your kicker covers in another. This way each kicker can identify its own cover and drop the wall it is supposed to.

 

[Shockman]

Another thing about kickers is that a kicker holds the ball.
I tried what you said. I just saw half the ball, so I did it wrong. Another trick is puting it on a surface that is above the surface it appears to be on. The only thing about this is the jump.

Check this out.

Shoot balls with the plunger, as many as you want, within the limit I set, at a time. Look how they settle into the cup. nudge and it jumps. See if you can nudge it out of the cup.

Here is the different way, Better? I don't know, it's not perfect.

 

[highrise]

I see what you mean, yes. I thought about the surface thing actually - your idea of letting the ball out is a good one. If you are still seeing half the ball, then it means one of two things:

- the wall you are using has to be droppable, with a bottom height of less than zero, or less than the surface the kicker is on. You have to set the wall to drop when the kicker hits it.
- the kicker has to be a kickerhole, not a hidden kicker.

If you PM me your email I'll send you a table I am working on that uses this.

 

[Shockman]

Got it, a hole type, I'll look into that.
Sure works. That is a great finding.

This is the same table with the kicker set back to no(ne) surface and highrise's trick.

This way is better.

 

[Shockman]

Funny thing is that although the wall is set to be droppable in the editor, it is not dropped when the kicker is hit. The wall is set to zero also. Still works, not a big surprise though. Check out POTO for some more way cool wall and ramp tricks.

 

[Shockman]

Well, one good thing about the first way is that two balls are very very much less likely to fall into each other. Try that. Look at how a ball acts if a ball is in the cup already with both versions.
Too bad triggers could not create and destroy balls id'nit.

 

[highrise]

what's POTO?

 

[highrise]

Phantom of the Opera I guess

 

[tiltjlp]

It'sreally neat watching inventive minds at work. I norally use kicker cups if I want to hold the ball before destroyingit or kicking it out. But that only works if you can match the color of the kicker cup with the color of the playfield. I'll check both of you guys ideas.

 

[highrise]

Regarding triggers destroying balls, have a look at this idea which I worked on last night.

I found that disabling the kicker, and then enabling it when the ball is over it won't work. I also tried dropping the ball onto the kicker from higher up, with no success. The ball has to 'enter' the kicker area to trigger it, if the kicker is enable when the ball is already in it's area, it doesn't see it. So I put the kicker above the hole instead, and when you trigger the event (in this case by pressing the 'R' key), the kicker is enabled and then the table is jolted slightly, knocking the ball into the kicker. The way that kickers work means that it is very unlikely any other ball would be destroyed. Bumping the whole table is not ideal, but with a bit of fine tuning it is barely noticeable.

Obviously you could change the event from being the 'R' key being pressed to a triggered event, or put it on a timer.

Highrise

 

[tiltjlp]

I kinda feel cheated. Here I am, busy releasing tables and searching for various images and such I need, and I don't have time to join in all this experimentation. I've got a few ideas i'm going to try out if and when I have time, but for now I'll play around with all the gizmos you design.